The Saturday Morning Cartoons (The SMC) are Kildare natives Morris Faderlum & Tommy Inowan, who together brew Sparklecore Thrash with a pinch of kink.
These are real songs, with real emotion steeped in honesty and vulnerability – something that jumps out and grabs you from the get go on their debut EP ‘A Shock For Jimmy’.
‘Getting Old’ jostles between the frantic and energised, and light and dreamy, while lyrics come with a Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat energy while ‘Good As Gold’ introduces a slunken groove and acts a bridge toward ‘Livin’ In A Bin’ and ‘Got Let Go’ which up the swagger, increase the bite and dials up the hard-hitting lyrics.
The SMC have created something wonderful here – brash, feisty and jarring yet also very, very catchy at times. A welcome breath of fresh air – it is unique and honest, and importantly damn fine tunes.
Morris Faderlum & Tommy Inowan are ably assisted in the production stakes by Poggy (No Monster Club/We Are Losers) & Stephen Fahey (Super Extra Bonus Party).
‘A Shock for Jimmy’ EP is the first of four planned EPs and with its release coming on July 11, I decided to have a chat with the pair, to find out more about the music and what makes them tick.
First off, what brought this collaboration about? “Absolute sheer boredom” says Faderlum , adding “wanting to escape the inner workings of my own head, spewing forth into the world while ranting to a backing track. That’s pretty much it. I love ranting and ranting, and giving out. Any excuse for a give out” he chuckles.
Inowan discovered a desire to collaborate with Faderlum while working on another project which he felt Faderlum would be very suited to and very good at. Going back further, having witnessed Faderlum perform live and leave himself behind and immerse himself entirely in the performance played no small part.
“You don’t see that sort of bravery an awful lot. it is one thing to get up on stage and plug in, we can all do that and bash the shit out of instruments and play. I think to get up on stage and be vulnerable, even if it is under a different name or pseudonym, whatever helps project reality and honesty – that just really gets me.”
Seeing Faderlum perform was not only impressive, it was inspiring and it sowed the seeds of working together.
Faderlum “had forgotten how much fun it was to write, I had done that shit in years and it was just great to do that track with Tommy and it just got the creative juices flowing.
It seems like an easy partnership from the outside, which is a good thing but how does the dynamic work?
Simple, says Faderlum, laughing “I get an idea for a song, I pass it to Tommy, he goes away and does all the hard work. It comes back and the song is made. Tommy gets an idea for a song, goes away and does all the hard work and the song is made.”
It is more interesting than that Inowan chimes in, “what I have done more recently is ask Morris does he have an idea or can he sing me a line and he might sing me a line or three [accompanied by a short hummed tune / melody] and then that is the end of the Whatsapp message. And for me it is interesting because even getting those few seconds of melodies or ideas, it is almost permission to explore with less judgement”.
One important thing they both spoke about from the off was honesty and vulnerability. Can we be honest enough with each other if we don’t like something to not take offence, to get more out of the other person and to compromise? That is more of a relationship thing that allows the music to come through.
Faderlum totally agrees. “We’re both easy going people, we both have good ideas and we’re both grown ups so it’s okay to bounce ideas around.”
Roughly speaking it is Faderlum who is responsible for the vocals and Onowen who looks after the music. The process worked out by demos being sent back and forth before meeting up to record together and hammer things out in person.
Faderlum has a jotter where all his lyrics are written down. “An idea might be stewing in your head and when you put pen to paper, it looks crap but then you stew it a bit more and you think, ah, now that’s good.”
Inowan says from the beginning he has been conscious of trying to not be too precious about the need to wedge lyrics and vocals mechanically into the structure of the song. “While I know Morris might have songs in mind but they could just as easily read as poems, they are articulate and introspective. I would like us to explore the spoken word element and the theatrical, as well as they Sparklecore. Essentially, engaged energy.”
The plan for the near future of The SMC is 4 EPS and then an album – and gigs, well that is just a case of getting together enough material for a live show.
Listen / Buy the EP below – the super artwork is from Egi23 – it is a short, sharp breath of sparklecore.